Public Actions

In accordance with IMF demands, the Lebanese government has approved a draft law to amend the banking secrecy law that has been in effect since 1965. The proposed amendments to the bank secrecy law: allow for the seizure of deposits by the decision of a judge or the Special Investigation Commission (currently the written signature of the depositor is needed); it lifts bank secrecy for the judiciary, the Special Investigation Committee, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Banking Control Commission, the tax authorities, the National Deposit Guarantee Institution, and the Central Bank; it allows security forces and the judicial police to enforce the surrender of bank information in cases of financial crimes, if a judicial order is issued to that effect by competent authorities; it allows for requesting banking information on a group of accounts without specifying customers or account numbers; it prevents the opening of nsecret accounts that have numbers instead of names that would identify their own; it allows any party or authority with the right to lift bank secrecy to exchange information it possesses with other parties that enjoy the same right, for the purpose of conducting the tasks entrusted to them.